Understand the conference and audience#

Once you know the conference, you roughly know the audience. First-time speakers often have a goal to speak, but they forget that speakers are there to serve the audience and the goals of the conference organizers. So the better you understand the conference and the audience, the higher your odds of being accepted.

Understand your conference and audience

If you’re new to conferences, “the game” can be rather opaque, so here are some basic, general facts (each conf will have exceptions!).

Speaker selection is a major part#

Conference organizers want to sell tickets, have a great content mix, and sell next year’s tickets in roughly that order. Speaker selection is a major part of how these goals are achieved.

Speaker selection is a major part

Don’t do what they do#

Fortunately, you don’t have to put butts in seats. Organizers will invite more famous speakers to do that. This is important: don’t do what they do. Not yet. They’re playing a different game, and the exact specifics of the talk/abstract matter less. You haven’t earned that yet.

Your job is, therefore, to be a part of their content selection. This selection will be determined by the target audience of the conference. The more established the conference is, the more that “good selection” is a priority since ticket sales are assured.

Community conferences#

Community conferences are often framework or language-focused. For example, JSConf takes a VERY wide variety of topics; you don’t even have to use JS or program for the web. It will always have room for the embedded JS talk, the creative coding talk, the other creative coding talk, or the other creative coding talk.

Community conferences

Company-sponsored conferences#

Company-sponsored conferences are often around a certain idea or movement, even if you don’t use the particular company. For example, Netlify sponsors JAMstackConf which invites speakers who don’t necessarily use or talk about Netlify at all. The scope is a little narrower and more “vertical” than “horizontal,” if that makes sense to you.

Speaker slots are limited#

A conference’s speaker slots are limited. A rule of thumb is eight to twelve speakers per day, per track (you can get more lightning talk speakers at the cost of some full talk speakers). So a three-day single-track conference has a max of thirty-six talks. The applicant pool for a conference ranges from an average of 200 to something like 800 to 1200 for a JSConf(Some conferences are invite-only). Your odds go down or up depending on these variables. A rejection doesn’t sting as much once you see how incredibly selective it is. It’s basically as non-deterministic as applying for colleges.

Importance of mix#

However, since we already established the importance of mix, there are subgames to be played here. Even if 70% of CFP applicants use React, JSConf doesn’t want to suddenly have 70% of talks be about React. So CFPs get put in buckets, whether explicitly or subconsciously. React CFPs will be compared on their merits with other React CFPs. There will also be some less competitive categories. Again, this may not be an explicit policy, but it happens regardless. Because “good mix”-- in the subjective view of reviewers-- is so important.

“Blind” CFP review is important#

Most conferences (again, with clear exceptions) will take big names over unknowns per domain. For example, if both Sarah Drasner and I were to submit a CFP on Vue, Design, or SVG animations, they would be silly not to take her over me. However, if this happened in every single talk, there would never be any new faces on stage and no pipeline for the next generation of speakers. Given equal levels of the unknown, employers also get taken into account. This is why a “blind” CFP review is important for some level of equity, serendipity, and renewal. In my experience, most CFPs are NOT blind. Mainly because putting butts in seats is more important for most conferences.

Summing up#

To sum up, everything we just covered: As a first-time speaker, your best opportunities are to apply to multi-track, multi-day conferences that have committed to a “blind” CFP review process around a framework, language, or architecture you know well. You may have a better shot speaking about a less competitive topic if that option is available to you.

You should especially seek out conferences that put out high-quality videos of every talk. This has two purposes. Part of your first talk’s job is to be a calling card for your next talk. One great talk can kickstart a great speaking career all on its own. Secondly, you can tell the exact nature and tone of previous talks that have been accepted for that specific conference, and therefore it is much easier to do research when pitching your own talk and then preparing to speak for it.

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